The Press: Out of the Zoo

The Chinese Communists keep Peking's tiny complement of foreign
correspondents (about 25) penned up like zoo animals, spoon-feed them a
diet of propaganda seldom adulterated by truth. But now and then the
tamest specimens, i.e., those with the staunchest Communist records,
are led forth for a blinkered stroll around the compound. Last week 19
such journalists returned to Peking after a three-week tour of ravaged
Tibet.

The arrangements were pure Mao dynasty. All 19 excursionists were
carefully chosen on the basis of docility: reporters from Pravda, Tass,
Poland's Trybuna Ludu, North Korean news agencies, Britain's Red Sheep
Alan Winnington (the London Daily...